DTV Cliff Effect Assistance Act of 2009
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
DTV Cliff Effect Assistance Act of 2009 - Directs the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information of the Department of Commerce to make payments (not to exceed $125 million in the aggregate) during FY2009-FY2012 from the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Fund for a program through which a local civil government body may receive funding for the construction and equipment of digital TV translators to fill gaps in the digital coverage for full-power stations where the gaps were created from the conversion of the signal from analog to digital.
Requires any translator tower built under this Act to reasonably facilitate the collocation of any wireless communications or broadband equipment (unless there is clear evidence of unresolvable signal interference issues).
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on April 27, 2009. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on April 27, 2009: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 111th Congress (2009-10), 383 of the 10,778 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.6 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced it on April 27, 2009, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 27, 2009, 6345 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 6345 days ago, on April 27, 2009.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 111th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2011 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers